Afra Lyon
Biography Early Life Afra grew up in the Capella Tower Complex, and was the youngest son of Gos and Cheswina Lyon. As an infant, he was distractible and precocious. As his Talent developed, he began hearing Capella greet Earth Prime Reidinger, and, thinking she was greeting him, replied with a 'good morning'. Afra's parents were appalled when they found out about that breach of ettiquette but Capella was amused by it. Neverless, Gos and Cheswina focused on 'curbing' Afra from doing it again without inhibiting his Talent. One of them or Goswina, the eldest sibling, had to awaken before Afra did to prevent him from repeating that performance. It soon became like a game to Afra- to wake up before Goswina or his parents so he could telepathically say hello to the first person who he heard mentally. Because of these exercises, Afra and Goswina developed a close relationship. Goswina cared deeply for Afra and he reciprocated those emotions. When they wanted to talk privately telepathically, they would place their hands on the wall opposite each other's rooms. By the time Goswina turned sixteen, she was a T-6 and eligible to attend the Tower Management course being held on Altair. Reluctantly she went, because of the family honor, and Afra howled loudly at her departure. Afra missed Goswina terribly during her absence. To cheer him up, Stationmaster Hasardar began enlisting Afra's help in sending and catching drones and sending messages to the captains of foreign ships on Capella. On Hasardar's bequest, Afra brought a message from Hasardar to Chief Damitcha, and was fascinated by the difference in physical appearance the Chief and his crew had, and by the foreign language spoken. Damitcha was kind to Afra and gave him a coin to spend 'on a rainy day'. Afra never told anyone about the coin, not even Goswina. Damitcha taught Afra the art of origami and gave him a calligraphy book as a gift. The two of them would often meet for a chat. When Goswina returned to Capella, Afra was impatient to see her for he sensed that she had something of immense importance to tell him, and that it concerned him. The moment she came through the door, he leapt into her arms, crying with happiness at her return. Afra told her that he had become Hasardar's helper, as a welcome-back gift. Afra did not have the chance to hear what Goswina wanted to tell him for their parents had arrived. Goswina promised to tell Afra about it later. Because of the honor Goswina had bestowed upon her family, all her favorite foods were served at dinner and she was allowed to receive a visit from Vessily Ogdon, her fiancee. Over dinner, a happy Goswina announced to the family that Capella had assigned her to the busiest Tower in Capella. Afra cried out mentally at this news, for it meant that Goswina would leave again. Gos Lyon admonished Afra for his outburst, saying that a Tower person has to maintain control over his emotions. The next morning, Goswina told Afra about what happened on Altair, and about the Rowan. She was certain that Afra and the Rowan's minds would match, and told Afra that the Rowan had promised that she would make sure he took the course on Altair when he was old enough. Life on Callisto Station When Afra was sixteen years old, he applied for the position of 'second-in-command' at Callisto Station. Surprisingly enough, the Rowan accepted his application and wanted to trial him at Callisto. Afra went, and was overjoyed. At Callisto Station he met Brian Ackerman, who introduced him to coffee, which was unavailable on Capella due to the cost of importing it, and the two men soon became close friends. Afra met the Rowan, who took a liking to him, and was amazed at how beautiful and unpredictable she was. Afra and the Rowan worked well together, so Afra stayed on permanently as the Rowan's support Talent. A few weeks after coming to Callisto, Afra was sent to Earth for an interview with Earth Prime Peter Reidinger IV. There he met Gollee Gren and impressed Earth Prime by bringing him an origami bull as a gift. Reidinger liked Afra and ordered Gollee to give Afra a tour of the City and take him wherever he needed to go. Gollee took Afra to Luciano's restaurant, where Afra met Luciano, the chef. Luciano served them both wine and claimed it was grape juice when Afra complained of being underage. Afra never realized what he had really been served. Later Gollee took Afra to a pleasure house to relax. There, Afra met Kama and her Coonie, Amos. With Kama was Afra's first time making love. Afra enjoyed it so much that he returned over the years to meet with Kama. After returning to Callisto, Afra dined with the Rowan in her quarters. There, the Rowan revealed that she was lonely and offered Afra friendship. Afra accepted it and they shared a meeting of minds and formed a bond that was close to but not quite romantic love. Afra fell in love with the Rowan, but hesitated to admit it to her for fear of being rejected and not wanting to be the youngster in the relationship. Their relationship grew to the point where the Rowan considered Afra a younger brother. As years past, when Afra saw the Rowan's loneliness he hoped and feared that she would one day turn to him for solace. To help her find her mate, Afra began seeking alternative solutions to her agoraphobia which bound her to Callisto. He began accustoming the Rowan to space travel by venturing off the surface in her special capsule for short periods of time. Eight years after Afra had become the Rowan's confidante and supporting Talent, the planet of Deneb contacted the Rowan for emergency medical supplies for a plague they were fighting. The mind that made contact was male, and obviously a T-1. When alien invaders invaded Deneb's skies, the Rowan proposed a mind-merge with the unknown Denebian T-1 to defeat them. Unfortunately, though the merge was a success, it was not enough for her to leave Callisto to be with the man, and her despair was so great that Afra and Brian feared for her sanity. That same day, a man arrived on the Station, and the Callisto Station crew welcomed him heartily (due to his charisma). Afra knew immediately that it was Deneb and was both happy for the Rowan and heartbroken that she would not turn to him for love now. The man introduced himself as Jeff Raven. Over the next few months Jeff Raven visited the Rowan at Callisto a number of times, and stayed overnight in her quarters. On a number of occasions, Afra and Brian ran the Station without the Rowan to give her and Raven time together, and pretended that the Rowan was still at work. When Jeff Raven was injured by a Hiver bomb on Deneb, the Rowan insisted on going to Deneb to help him. Afra was reluctant to teleport her, for he realised the risks of making a teleportation to a planet where Jeff was the only Talent capable of safely catching her, and was afraid for her life. But the Rowan was determined and forced Afra into the merge so that he could not stop her, and she teleported to Deneb. Afra was upset and terrified that he had lead her to her death. After a discussion with Reidinger, he agreed to have a pair of T-2s to run Callisto in the Rowan's absence and was relieved to hear the news that Jeff Raven would live. Three weeks later the Rowan returned, her agoraphobia cured, and asked Afra if he could get her into Blundell to see Reidinger without him knowing. Although apprehensive about the idea, Afra obeyed her but warned Reidinger of her plan. Later, Afra was furious to find out that Reidinger had reassigned the Rowan to Altair, her native planet, because he suspected that she was pregnant with Jeff Raven's child. Afra reluctantly agreed to teach Jeff Raven how to function in a Tower, and so Jeff was sent to Callisto to be Prime there. Afra was afraid that Jeff Raven would resent his close relationship with the Rowan, and was ready for a rejection, when Jeff expressed gratitude to Afra for helping the Rowan and being her close friend. After that, Afra and Jeff worked well together, although Afra found more comfort with his link with the Rowan. Afra accustomed Jeff to working with different minds, and introduced him to Gollee Gren, who later became Jeff's assistant on Earth. When Jeff Raven went to Altair to visit the Rowan, he returned to Callisto shocked that Afra had known of the Rowan's pregnancy when she herself had not known until a week ago. Afra told him that he had known the Rowan for so long that he was able to notice the differences in her body. He further shocked Raven by asking if he was glad the baby would be a boy. Five months later, the Rowan returned to Callisto and was permanently reassigned as Prime when Reidinger learnt of her pregnancy. Reidinger was furious with Afra for not telling him of the Rowan's pregnancy, but Afra was not perturbed by it. Over the next few months, Afra, Raven and Brian took over more of the Rowan's responsibilities as the Rowan neared the end of her pregnancy. At one point Jeff approached Afra, and asked him to stand as loco parentis to his and Rowan's son. At first Afra refused, but Raven convinced him to accept. After the birth of Rowan's son, Afra did not go to see her, for he didn't want to disturb her so soon after the birth. During this time, Isthia Raven came to visit him, to see if he was a good choice as a loco parentis. The two immediately became friends, and during the rest of Isthia's stay they met up for tea and chat, and once they played bridge with the Ackermans. When Isthia was talking to Afra once, she went into a trance, and said that Afra would come to Deneb to rest and renew life. When she came out of it, she asked if she said anything, but Afra, who was very disturbed, lied and said she didn't. Six months after Jeran's birth, Afra received a visit from Jeff and Brian. Jeff demanded go know if the Rowan was pregnant, and Afra said yes. Jeff warned the two men that the Rowan would come to them to ask for transport to Deneb. The next day, Rowan asked this very thing, but Afra and Brian made her clear it with Jeff first. They were still uneasy about it, however, especially since she wasctaking Jeran with her. The next day Rowan returned with news that Deneb was under attack again by the Hivers. This time, Deneb had the full support of the Nine Star League. Eventually, after a long vigil, the Hiver was thrown into the Deneb sun by the male and female mass merges of all the Talents in the universe. Afra participated in the male Raven-merge which threw the Hiver ships into the sun. Not long after the event, Afra noticed that Jeran had begun talking to the Rowan's unborn daughter. He talked to Jeff Raven about it, and they and Elizara concluded that the foetus was reacting to the power that was flowing through the Rowan during the mind merge. They agreed that the only way to fix this complication was to create an in utero link when the Rowan was too distracted to prevent it. To achieve this, Jeff married the Rowan, and as they kissed after their vows Jeran ran to them and talked to his sister, establishing a link between them. Later, this link would cause problems, as the bond between the two children would prevent them from having good relations with future siblings. Afra continued to work as the Rowan's T-3 support. Personal Info Afra is tall and slender with blonde hair, slightly green skin and yellow eyes. He starts out as a T-4 but later progress to a T-3 then to a T-2 telekinetic and telepath. Category:Tower and the Hive Series Characters Category:Telepath Category:Telekenetic